Saturday, November 26, 2016

Friday, November 25, 2016

A few days ago I read about a book, In Sinu Jesuthat one of Rorate Caeli's team of writers, really likes. It is recommended for use during Adoration and is praised by Cardinal Burke. I bought it and read it and I have to say that it made me a little uneasy. The book is written by anonymous Benedictine and is his reflections on his inner locutions from Our Lord and Our Lady. The thing that bothers me is that the words of Our Lord in this book are...well... gooey. I cannot imagine the Christ speaking like this. Some people find the dialogue in St. Faustina's diary to be too sugary but I'll let that pass because she was a simple young woman with a girlish vocabulary and who grew up in culture quite different from the post World War II West. The priest who wrote this book is a modern, educated American male so there would be no need for Our Lord to speak to him in such precious way.

There is so much repetition that I found myself skipping pages. Would God say the same thing day after day, year after year? God spoke to Moses and Noah with clear commands and He did not repeat Himself like a mother telling her kid to pick up his socks for the 50th time in a month. The volume of inner locutions worried me too. When I compare the amount of locutions of In Sinu Jesu to what was said succinctly stated to Saints Gertrude, Margaret Mary, Catherine Laboure and St. Teresa of Avila it just seems so different. The chattiness in In Sinu Jesu reminds me of Medjugorje and Fr. Gobbi.

I'm not knocking the priest. To his credit, he is not chatting on EWTN or hitting the lecture circuit. He's only published his diary and done so anonymously. He remains quietly at his work in the monastery and in adoration of the Lord. However, it's possible that Father is mistaken about what he is hearing and the Church does not require us to accept every word from every mystic. My parish priest is busy so I'm not going to bother him or our parochial vicar with it but I'd be interested to see what a good theologian priest's reaction to it would be to this book. For safety's sake I will stick to time tested and Church approved guides such as Imitation of Christ,or Visits to the Blessed Sacrament by St. Alphonsus or the great devotion of the rosary when I'm at Adoration.

Thursday, November 24, 2016

The people at work have been carrying on and being miserable about the election. Several people claimed to be dreading Thanksgiving because their Republican relatives will be so happy. Some were even talking about staying home and sulking. Good grief. Naturally I've kept my mouth shut but inside I've lost so much respect for my attorneys. Grown men and women pouting and dropping the F- word in the office is not pleasant at all.

I've been looking forward to Thanksgiving all month just like every year and as a Catholic I'm always amused that the first one really was in Spanish colonial Florida and was the holy Mass.

Wednesday, November 23, 2016

Being Catholic I am perfectly used to powerful women and having gone to all girl schools I know that the female of the species can be more ferocious than the male under the right circumstances. Consequently, neither Hilary Clinton nor 90% of female politicians today impress me. Although some people are calling Pope John Paul II "great," the name hasn't stuck yet. That is a rare title for a very few male saints and only one woman, that I know of, a German Benedictine nun, who was blessed with visitations from the Lord, St. Gertrude the Great. Her writings won the admiration of St. Teresa of Avila who looked at her as a role model. Both St. Philip Neri and St. Francis de Sales used her prayers and recommended her book, Herald of Divine Love. If you want a role model skip the pop starlets and singers and take a look at the Great One.

Sunday, November 20, 2016

Rocky took a rare Saturday off so we went for a drive in Southern Maryland. We went to the Patuxent Naval Air Museum and after that to Mass at St. John Regis. It is a lovely little old church with a wonderful historic cemetery. Mass started and there was no priest. People began looking around with concern and then the old priest announced from the choir loft that nothing was wrong with him but that there was going to be guest priest and he was caught in traffic. So we waited 15 minutes and when Father Guest came he apologized. Someone told the dear man that it was only 30 minutes from Baltimore to Hollywood, Maryland and since he comes from Congo he had no reason to doubt that. He gave a fine homily. The whole Mass was reverent and the cantor stayed in the choir loft. After Mass we went to Golden Coral for dinner. We realized that we are not Golden Coral people but the chocolate fountain was nice.

St. John Regis was a tireless preacher who established safe houses for prostitutes who wanted out of that life and he created jobs and safe environments for country girls who had to come to the big city for work.

Wednesday, November 16, 2016

Tuesday, November 15, 2016

A priest went hiking with his sister who complained that she couldn't find a man. The priest noticed that most of the hikers were female and innocently, I believe, wondered where the men were. Father did not say what day he went hiking but if it was on a week day I'm guessing that the men were at work. My husband's day off is in the middle of the week and when he goes out during the day he usually only sees young women, babies and dogs in the parks. We see plenty of male hikers on Saturday and Sunday. The really interesting thing about this column was that the male readers spoke back and expressed distaste with what they had read. A few months ago I saw an essay about building better Catholic men and I wondered why nobody ever asks about building better Catholic women? I'm sick of the man bashing that has gone on for years in our pulpits and Catholic publications. All young men are not effeminate cads and they aren't all sitting on the couch playing video games.

Tuesday, November 08, 2016

Monday, November 07, 2016

This is not cute. In fact it's very disturbing. Seeing a priest sing along to Bruno Mars, Meghan Trainor, Taylor Swift, Lil Jon* and Justin Timberlake songs reminds me of when I was a teenager and absolutely appalled when my 12th grade religion teacher, Brother Ray or any of my high school nuns tried to act like kids. Their attempts at being hipsters did not inspire me. In fact, by the time I graduated I had lost respect for Brother Ray and mostly pitied him. If you want to inspire your son to think about a religious vocation I wouldn't show him this video. Hand him a book on the lives of some definitely not cool priests instead.

St. Ignatius of Antioch, Blesseds Zenon and Ivan, Sts. John Vianney and John Fisher, pray for us.

* The Lil Jon song is "Turn Down For What?" The phrase "turn down" means stop drinking or using drugs and get sober. The protagonist in the song is saying that he is having a great time and doesn't see a reason to clean himself up and get off whatever mood altering substance he is on. The official video to the song is pornographic. Do you think it's cute for your priest to be singing a song like this?

Wednesday, November 02, 2016

A lot of people think the earthquakes in Italy are a sign that God is not happy with Francis. I don't think so. When you live on a land mass with fault lines you get earthquakes. Norcia was the one bright spot in Catholic Italy, now it is in ruins and the Basilica has collapsed except for the front facade. Surely if the message was for Pope Francis then it would have been in a way that he couldn't miss. Usually when Our Lord uses nature to instruct us it is obvious and unmistakable : a star moves over Bethlehem, the Red Sea parts, darkness covers the land on Good Friday and the dead appear, the sun dances in Fatima, St. Vincent and St. Joseph defy gravity, lightning strikes St. Peters for the first time in recorded history... things like that.

Last night at Mass was interesting. The lines for confession were long which is wonderful to see and it's always a shot of soul medicine to be at the traditional Latin Mass but there was a family sitting in front of me who were so loud that one of the gentlest, most patient women in the parish who was right behind them got up and left. Behind me was an older couple who were hard of hearing and kept talking to each other without realizing that we could all hear them. I was sitting with Rocky and the other ushers so I stayed put. After Mass a woman peppered Rocky with questions about the Mass and he answered them very well. She's planning on coming back.

I miss my father. I miss my Uncle Sonny Boy. I still get sick and angry when I think of the nurses telling me that I was being overly anxious about his cold....which turned out to really be pneumonia. Oh God, please save them. Draw them to Your wounded side. Eternal rest grant unto them and all my kin in Purgatory, may perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace.